Bumper sticker: "Wherever I go, there I am"

I hold a great deal of "therapeutic" methods in suspicion for reasons you hint at. Too many treatments (meds, behavior modification, positive thinking, etc) are ways to put the dragon in a "safe" place, out of sight and out of mind. The dragon is calmed and restrained but remains in waiting for the door to crack open and a chance to roar. The dragon can be denied, even forgotten for a time, but it is still there and its strength remains, or grows. A therapeutic treatment plan does not care that the dragon remains. It has a trajectory, a time line of events, with a planned outcome of a quiescent dragon defining success and end of treatment. If you have a therapist who is paid by an HMO ask them about the approved treatment plan for your diagnosis. They have one whether they like it or not. It is their bread and butter. Your therapist may, or may not, care about your caged dragon. Your insurance company certainly does not.

So what to do? For me, locking my dragon in with meds for the past 30+ years was ok until very recently. It then started to become and ethical and philosophical problem. This dragon is me, too. It's a bastard, but it is a part of my life. Do I really want to finish up the second half of life continuously stomping on it? Would "victory" be true? Would I die complete?

I stopped all meds and the dragon roared frightenly for weeks. I climbed into its box and got a good look at it. It is a complicated beast, and I am getting to like it, as a parent who loves a difficult child. It is calming down now, and strangely I am missing the frequent blasts of its burning breath.

The story is unfinished....